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DAYTON — Price cuts that Delta Air Lines announced this week on advance-purchase leisure fares available from Cincinnati probably won't have much effect on Dayton International Airport's passenger traffic, travel agents and a Dayton airport spokesman said.

That is because air fares from the Delta-dominated Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky International Airport were high to begin with, and many fares from Dayton will still be lower even in light of Delta's Cincinnati fare reductions, the agents and airport spokesman said in interviews Friday.

"We're cognizant of it, we're watching it, but we don't think it's going to affect us very much," said Gene Conrad, spokesman for the Dayton airport.

Travelers who prefer the nonstop flights that Delta offers from Cincinnati may still be willing to pay more to fly from there, but price-conscious consumers likely won't, said Andrea Ewart, a travel consultant at Huffman Travel Ltd. in Oakwood.

Delta said its price cuts are for tickets bought through the www.Delta.com Website at least 21 days in advance, and affect about 60 percent of the 120 nonstop U.S. domestic markets served from Cincinnati. On average, the reductions offer customers a 20 percent savings on the advance-purchase leisure fares, Delta said.

Tickets cost $20 more if bought from Delta over the telephone, or at an airport or city ticket office.

Most of the changes have been made to the lowest fares available in select markets with an average fare reduction of about $80 per round trip, the Atlanta-based airline said.

The fares were cut to keep them competitive, but they still reflect the cost of operating the flight hub at Cincinnati, Delta said.

Cincinnati had the highest average air fares of the nation's top 100 airports during the first three months of this year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics. Delta and its subsidiary, Comair, are responsible for 85 percent of the Cincinnati airport's takeoffs and landings.

Delta gave these examples of the former fares and the new reduced ones, based on round-trip tickets bought 21 days in advance: Cincinnati to Dayton, reduced from $300 to $198; Cincinnati to Cleveland, reduced from $400 to $278; Cincinnati to Seattle, cut from $620 to $478. Those were based on fares published Aug. 15, Delta said.

The Orbitz.com travel Website and research by travel agents showed these comparative prices as the lowest available published fares (including airlines other than Delta) for round-trip tickets bought at least 21 days in advance: Dayton to Atlanta, $204-Cincinnati to Atlanta, $354; Dayton to Seattle, $367-Cincinnati to Seattle, $478; Dayton to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., $274-Cincinnati to Fort Lauderdale, $376.

Travel agents said the cut in 21-day-in-advance fares would not help business executives much because they generally have to travel on shorter notice to meet with clients.

"Most business travelers cannot book 21 days ahead of time because of their schedules," said Doug Compton, vice president of All World Travel Service Inc., a Dayton travel agency.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2242 or jnolan@DaytonDailyNews.com.